Chapter 16 #2
Blazing heat skims over my body in short bursts as Ricky holds a blowtorch in his hand, his fingers pressing the trigger in quick succession, firing out a burning blue flame from the thin nozzle.
My vision seems blurry but I can just about see him picking something up from a desk, or a table maybe?
And bringing it to the scorching blue flame.
The metal of the item burns brightly under the flame, glowing various shades of oranges and yellows as it begins to get hotter and hotter and I have to squint my eyes to see what it is exactly that he’s holding.
“What.. is that?” I say through heavy breaths.
“Oh this?” He starts, waving the metal object around.
“Is a speculum. I’m gonna brand you with it, then once I’ve fucked you until your red raw and bleeding, I’ll need to get rid of your womb, can’t have any crotch goblins growing in there now can we and considering how many people have already been in there, I’ll have to be thorough. ”
“You’re.. fucking sick,” I mumble. “YOU’RE FUCKING SICK!
” A scream tears from my throat but the words are instantly lost and ripped from me as Ricky places the burning speculum on the inside of my thigh.
I can feel my skin melting as the hot metal eats away at my flesh.
Heaving and straining, my chest threatens to cave in as short, rapid breaths fire in and out of my mouth.
It’s too much, I can’t breathe. The smell of burning flesh wafts up my nose again and it takes everything in me to not heave and expel the emptiness that’s in my stomach as the horrid scent lingers around the room.
I don’t know how much more I can take. I feel like I’ve been dragged through hell and back, twice over. My body is screaming for me to end everything, to give me some fucking peace but I can’t give in, not yet.
The burning agony on my thigh slips away for a moment and I immediately suck in a large breath as tears stream down my face, the saltiness sinking into the wound on my cheek, causing it to sting.
“No.. no more. I..” I beg, feeling exhausted.
“You’re so pretty when you beg, you always have been.” Ricky states, his tone filled with malice as he begins to heat up the speculum once again and I can feel myself slipping away.
“Please, please don’t do this. Just.. just kill me.
I can’t..” I feel like my words don’t even make sense anymore, like they’re all garbled and messy, and maybe that’s exactly how I’m feeling.
My head topples to the side, too heavy for me to hold up any longer and my eyelids begin a flutter closed again.
My lashes don’t even have to chance the rest on my skin before the raging agony eats through my skin again from Ricky placing the speculum further up the inside of my thigh, pushing it into my flesh until I swear I can feel it in my bones, eating away at the marrow until there’s nothing left.
Demonic, that’s the only way to describe the sound that leaves my hoarse throat. It’s otherworldly, a scream of pure fucking, excruciating pain and I’m begging and pleading for it to end. To just end, please.
“Ricky! Please! I’m begging you, please end this!”
His face lights up at my words, his dark eyes shining at the torture he’s putting me through and that’s when I realise, no matter how much I beg him to end this, to end me, he’ll never stop.
I throw myself around on the bed, the wheels squeaking as they scrape across the floor, doing everything I can to get away from him but exhaustion quickly takes over my body, the flame inside of me burning out.
Ricky lifts the speculum away from my thigh again and I can feel the skin tearing away with it, pulling at the tender flesh and my eyes bug wide when I see a chunk of my skin that’s melted onto the speculum.
It’s enough to knock me sick. A sour bile rises up my throat and yellow vomit explodes all over my chest like a burst pipe, spewing the contents of whatever is left of my stomach all over the place.
The watery liquid splashes onto the floor with a wet slap, causing Ricky to step backwards in a haste, avoiding any splatter to land on his expensive shoes, he then lifts his free hand to cover his nose to block out the acidic smell.
“You’re disgusting, you know that?” He says with disgust and my eyes drift down to the mess I’ve made all over myself.
“Apologise.”
“What?” I say, snapping my gaze back to him.
“You heard me, apologise for the mess you’ve made.”
He can’t be serious. I have to apologise for the mess he’s caused me to make. As if any of this is my fault.
“You know how I feel about the mess, Annabelle. Now don’t keep me waiting, and apologise to your husband.”
Disgust and shame hits me again and I can’t even stop it. I can’t stop myself from slipping into that broken woman again. Memories of my blood soaking into the plush gray carpet of our home flashes behind my eyes, the way he made me scrub it until the chemicals I used burned into my fingers.
Fresh tears well in my eyes again. “I.. I’m sorry.” I whisper, almost ready to choke on the words.
“Louder.”
“I’m sorry.” I say with clear intent.
“There’s a good girl.” He coos, and vomit rolls in my stomach again but I quickly shun it back down, refusing to cause more spills.
Ricky seems pleased with my apology and places the speculum down on a table that’s sitting next to the bed, then he comes to stand at the end of the bed where my feet are buckled together with the same leather straps that are holding my arms down.
His stormy eyes glow with a viciousness like I’ve never seen before, and my skin begins to crawl with fear, like a million ants are burrowing into my body.
He places his hands on the leather straps and begins to unbuckle them.
“What are you doing?” I ask, fearful of his next move.
Everything about Ricky is unpredictable and it leaves me on edge.
The room stays silent as he continues to pull the leather straps free, leaving my question in limbo.
Once my legs are free, I try to pull them away but he’s so much quicker than me, grabbing my ankles in a vice grip before yanking them into the stirrups that I didn’t even notice he’d lifted up.
I struggle in his hold, doing whatever I can to pull my legs away but it’s useless as they’re quickly fastened down again, my thighs parted open to reveal my most intimate area to him.
The look on his face is one of pure evil as he takes in every inch of me, a body that’s littered in wounds and scars, bruises and dirt covering every inch, but that doesn’t seem to deter him.
In fact, he looks like a starving beast ready to eat me alive and it makes me sick.
Feather light touches skim over my ankles and I jump at the contact as he trails his fingers up the insides of my calves, curling over my knees until he reaches the apex of my thighs.
His touch feels like a blade that’s slicing through my skin and I’ve never been more desperate to crawl away, to tear my own skin off.
Lifting my gaze to meet him, I plead. “Please, don’t do this. I.. I can’t take it anymore. I’m begging you to kill me, just end it now.”
I remember the last time I begged for death, but it never came, like something or someone had me tethered to the earth, refusing to let me go.
“Your pleas mean nothing to me Annabelle, when will you learn that, hm? That whatever you say means nothing to me. You, mean nothing to me, you never have done. You were a debt that needed to be claimed, and I got exactly what I wanted. A good fucking lay, a pussy to keep my dick warm in the mean time.”
His words stab me but it’s not hurt that I feel anymore, at one point I would have cried and poured my heart out at him for hurting me in such a way but now, his words mean nothing to me.
I was stupid for apologising before, I was stupid for allowing this man into my life, to poison me from the inside out.
Ricky takes a sharp breath before continuing, his fingers digging into my knees.
“There’s no use begging for death because it’ll never come. You’ll live out the rest of your pathetic life in my cage, alongside your best friend.”
What?
I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus.
“What do you mean?” I ask with trepidation.
“Oh, don’t tell me you never realised how much of a desperate whore your best friend was?” He says with a dark chuckle, but I can only hear one word. Was, not is.
“You said ‘was’, not ‘is’?”
“Did I? Oops, must have just slipped out. Yeah, that bitch really wanted my cock, badly. It’s a shame what happened to her though, truly.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I snap out and I can feel my patience wearing thin. He inches his fingers closer to my core but I keep my gaze locked on him, refusing to back down.
“Fuck, you make me hard when you’re all snappy like this.” He groans and I shudder at the sound. “I suppose I better tell you what happened to the poor bitch before I ruin you, it’s the least I can do.”
“How thoughtful of you.” I murmur.
Ricky’s demeanour quickly changes at my remark. “Don’t give me your fucking attitude, I’ll slit your throat right now and bleed you dry, is that what you want?”
“No. It’s not.” I say, backing down for a moment, letting him have his moment.
“Good little wife. Now, onto precious Ellie.”
The sound of her name has tears pricking in the corners of my eyes.
The last time I saw her was before the crash, she’d taken me into her arms and whispered in my ear that she’d see me again.
I never thought those would be the last words I heard from her.
The memory has me grinding my molars together but Ricky quickly snaps me out of it when his hand slaps across the burn mark on my thigh.
A sharp yelp spills from my mouth and I quickly bite down on my abused bottom lip to silence myself.
“Good, I’ve got your attention.” He retorts. “There’s one thing that you’ve never asked me in this whole time we’ve had together and I’m quite surprised that it never crossed your mind.”
“What did you want me to ask?”
He tips his head to the side. “How I found you, and ran your car off the road?”
Ricky is right. I never even thought to ask how he found where I was.
I just assumed he had connections everywhere and I knew it wouldn’t be long before he caught up with me, but, what’s strange is that I was ran off the road after meeting up with Ellie.
Theories begin to swirl in my mind, questions and answers that I don’t want to accept and Ricky can see the confusion and anguish all over my face.
“Are you finally putting it together now, sweetheart?”
“You’re lying. She.. she would never.” I stutter.
“Oh. But she would, and she has. I guess your friend wasn’t as loyal as you thought she was.”
Anger courses through my veins and I’m struggling to comprehend his words. That my best friend could rat me out to my abusive husband, and for what?
“Tell me the fucking truth, right now!” I fire out, heat blazing across my skin and my fingers begin to dig into the scratchy sheet on the bed.
Ricky squeezes my thighs right where the burns are and I hiss a sharp breath in through gritted teeth, then he continues to spill the story of my best friend throwing me under the bus, for fucking money.
“So, yeah. That’s the story of how precious little Ellie, fucked over her best friend for good dick and a fuck ton of money. What a beautiful tale.” He singsongs, not giving a single fuck that I’m dying inside from betrayal that cuts deeper than any knife ever could.
I trusted her with everything I had.
“I hate you.” I mumble, keeping my head low.
“Hm, what was that?” He asks, tipping his head to the side like one would speak to a child in trouble.
“I said.” I start, rising as best I can to meet his gaze.
“I hate you. I hate you with every fibre of my being, of every beat of my heart, of every drop of blood in my veins, I hate you and I can’t wait to watch you suffer.
So go ahead, fuck me up, ruin me, destroy me, kill me.
But you can bet your ass that I’ll be the one who ends you.
” I seethe, and in that very moment I accept my fate.
Closing my eyes, I allow myself to sink into the green pools of Dean’s eyes as Ricky rips into me, searing my cervix and womb with the heated speculum until I know I’ll never be able to grow another life in there, leaving me empty and hollow.